Saturday, July 30, 2011

For our bees, I planted a sunflower jungle. Bees just loove these large flowers with their abundance of nectar. And we are anticipating a large honey harvest... classic win-win! Once they are bee-eaten, the birds are getting interested in the sunflower seeds.

Now I have learned that sunflowers can do even more than being pretty and nutritious to a variety of beeings:

Apparently sunflowers have the ability to draw cesium and strontium - both radioactive chemicals - out of the soil, which is why activists have started a huge project to send sunflower seeds to Japan.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Hippocrates, the ‘father of western medicine’ was a Greek physician who lived from approximately 460 B.C. until around 370 B.C. He is credited as being the first physician who believed that diseases were not caused by superstition or gods, but rather that diseases had natural causes.

Today's doctors all take the Hippocratic Oath, but are they actually following his teachings?

Here are just a few of his teachings and or demands upon physicians:

1. Do no harm!

“Whenever a doctor cannot do good, he must be kept from doing harm.”

“As to diseases, make a habit of two things – to help, or at least, to do no harm.”

In April, the Los Angeles Times reported that, "One recent study published in the journal Health Affairs estimated that one in three patients admitted to a hospital experiences what is known as an "adverse event" such as being given the wrong medication, acquiring an infection or receiving the wrong surgical procedure."

VERDICT: FAILED!

2. Nutrition and Exercise

“If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.”

“Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food.”

“Walking is man’s best medicine.”

In a country, where ads for prescription medication are on TV, it comes at no surprise that, "The number of hospitalisations due to poisoning by prescription drugs have increased from approximately 43,000 to about 71,000 in the country between 1999 and 2006, said the report published today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine." (The Hindu - April 6, 2010)

While the NY Times reports in May, "The rate of prescription pain medication misuse by New York City residents who are 12 or older has increased by 40 percent from 2002 to 2009, according to a report released Friday by the city’s Health Department. "

When it comes to prescribing good nourishment and work-out, it is even more worry-some:

While health insurance in most European countries subsidize gym memberships, this simple preventive measure is completely unheard of in the United States of America.

And healthy food is really hard to come by these days. With Monsanto and Co. being treated as a person and therefore granting them constitutional rights including the one for free speech, allows for these said companies to claim basically anything that they want and makes it legal to not list all the ingredients contained in any cosmetic or food or any other consumer product. Personally, I find this almost criminal and I encourage EVERYONE to sign the petition to revoke these constitutional rights for corporations at www.movetoamend.org

Meanwhile, genetically tempered soy and corn is in a large variety of foods. No wonder, the cancer and allergy rates are much higher in the US than anywhere else in the world, where these kind of tempered foods are banned.

VERDICT: FAILED!

3. The body's healing powers

“To do nothing is sometimes a good remedy.”

Have you ever left your doctor's office without a prescription medication or an address for either a lab or a specialist? Today in the USA, a medical practise is a BUSINESS: the more tests they run on you, the more $$$ they make.

“Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease.”

Osteopaths and other alternative physicians know this but your average MD believes in meds and cold steel alone. Again, more procedures, more money in the bank.

VERDICT: FAILED!

4. Comforting patients - the human connection

“Cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always.”

How long is your average face time with your physician? 10 Minutes? You are lucky! The New York Times reported in March 2006, that the average time with a physician is exactly seven minutes.

How can someone comfort you, when they do not even have the enough time to listen and find out what is going on with you?

VERDICT: FAILED!

5. A thought is a thing!

“A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.”

Many alternative healers will agree that a disease is teaching the patient something and obviously our attitude plays a large factor in healing, which many cancer patients will testify. And yet, we still spend more more money researching the latest drug or fancy expensive diagnostic tool as opposed to understanding the amazing healing powers of our very own minds.

VERDICT: FAILED!

6. Astrology as a diagnostic tool

"A physician without any knowledge of astrology has no right to call himself a physician."

With the aid of astrology, Hippocrates was not only better equipped to diagnose the ailment but he could also better predict the process of the disease. It is often referenced that there were certain days when 'crisis' (a worsening of the condition or bettering of the patient) occurred as part of the healing process. These days were astrologically calculated.

“It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has.”

Another hint to astrological patterns as a diagnostic tool.

I, personally, do not know of ANY physician who uses astrology as a diagnostics tool.

VERDICT: FAILED!

CONCLUSION:

To sum it up, I would have to say that it is pretty lame that physicians take an oath dedicated to a healer and yet they do not follow any one of his teachings. Until they start following his teachings, I recommend they stop the charade of the oath!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

We are spending a weekend in beautiful Park City, UT.

The 'retired' marketing exec in me thinks, they should change their marketing campaign to "Love at an Elevation". Their current claim "Life elevated" isn't really doing it for me.

After lunching at the Park Silly market, a wonderful farmers and crafters market every Sunday from 10am til (I believe) 5pm and we were back home in time for the daily brief storms with thunder and lightening, when I asked the gang whether they felt like cookies. OH YES! In retrospect, DUH - why did I ask?

Since I am often worrying that Aurelia gets enough protein, I add whey protein in a bunch of baked items, hehe.

At this point, I probably should talk about the soy problem and why anything including soy (and also anything including high fructore corn syrup) is banned in our households. You may want to check the ingredient lists of snack foods, especially those sold for kids and you will be amazed how many have these two black lister ingredients in them.

Here is why soy is bad for you: To get quality soy is almost impossible because along with corn it must be the most tempered with crop. In addition to its wide range genetical modification, soy may cause cancer (or maybe because of it, who is to say?!). And if that's not enough, I am highly allergic to soy. My body knows best, eh?!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

﻿Last night, when I came home from Graduation of Sustainable Living Class, Roberto told me, "I have a surprise for you!" Then he asked me to sit at the dining room table and close my eyes. When I opened tmy eyes, there were three beautiful creamy coloured eggs infront of me. And they were from our ducks! OMG!

It had finally happened! Lotta and Big have started to lay eggs and we had officially graduated to the next level of homesteadying! Whow! Two graduations in one day for me!

So, every morning now, after letting the girls out, we will be going on an egg hunt. The thing with ducks and their eggs is that they will not lay them in a nest like chickens. They will lay them wherever they are, which is why you probably want to leave them in their house until after 8 am - 9am for sure the eggs are there and you don't have to hunt around the yard to find them.

Guess, what is for breakfast?!
Already when opening the eggs, you start realising the issues with commercial egg production.

BTW: Isn't this already a contradiction: egg and production, like they can assemble them on some line?! Not in a hundred years will man be able to create something as perfect as an egg!

Anyway, back to the eggs:

The first thing, you will notice is that the shell is HARD (no calcium deficiency in our birds!)! You almost need a knife to open it! Then the yolk is an amazing colour! And then there is that taste... you won't believe your taste buds. And they probably will ask, "Where were you all my life?"

Roberto mentioned how the nutritional value must be extremely high since we both felt filled up after sharing only three duck eggs for breakfast. In a commercial production, where the layers are stressed and forced to lay (even if it's organic and cage free), the nutritional value is often dramatically reduced due to the overall situation of the birds.

Well, that's it! We are spoiled forever now because the ladies will just keep it coming!

Friday, July 1, 2011

I have cabbages. Therefore I have aphids. That's just how this is. Unless you spray pesticides, you cannot have cabbages and seriously expect not to have aphids.

But what to do about these plant-sap-suckers, who eventually can destroy a plant?

There is a thing or two about aphids to know that can help you in understanding and / or beridding them.

#1 Ants harvest aphids. Therefore they 'herd' them and even carry them from plant to plant. So if you see a line of ants going to a plant, you may want to consider doing something. Ant traps (see one of my earlier blogs on this subject). Also, sprinkling a tad of DE around the plant's base may be helpful.

#2 Spraying neemoil can be helpful. The aphids then cannot hold on anymore. Dealing with pests is most successful when the moon is in pices.

#3 Spraying chili-water, because the aphid skin is very thin, so this concoction may kill them. Again, dealing with pests is most successful when the moon is in pices.

#4 Leave them alone and let nature take care of them. Aphids have two major predators: Ladybugs (whose correct name actually is ladybird beetle) and certain variety of tiny wasps.

I have soo many aphids on my cabbages and was truely getting upset about it. Just when I was thinking about getting the neemoil out, I saw a tiny wasp flying around my cabbages. These guys work wonders! They lay their eggs on teh aphids and then their larvae eats the aphid. Problem solved!

#5 Buying ladybugs to eat the aphids -Now this really is a big problem: When you buy ladybugs, someone has collected them in the wild and when you release them, they will try flying back home. While attempting this, they will die. Also, when you release them, they rarely stay to eat anything.

PLEASE DON'T DO THAT. EVER!

It's simply not worth it for you (because they fly away and don't eat your aphids) and it puts another species in danger. Instead just wait for the native ladybugs in your hood to show up and do the job.

Trust me, if you leave the aphids alone, they - along with teh wasps - will show up!

You actually can harvest and eat you aphid infested cabbages. Just wash the leaves really well (I use the sprayer on our sink) and the aphids come right off. While they are a pest, they are not dangerous, even if you should accidentally cook and then eat one or two.